Grocery Store Produce Germ Eliminator

You've bought produce from a grocery store before, and so Lego Bistro's project idea can help you! Our team's idea is a simple solution that helps reduce or eliminate surface bacteria on produce, helping produce distributors and consumers.

All fresh produce has bacteria on it, like e-coli, salmonella and Listeria. Listeria is an especially nasty kind of bacteria because it continues to grow in cold temperatures. It can be killed by cooking food, but we don't cook all our fresh fruits and vegetables. Because people can get sick and even die from these bacteria, its presence can lead to costly produce recalls. Two recent examples of Listeria contaminated produce are the lettuce and cantaloupe recalls in 2011.

In developing a solution to avoid these costly recalls, the team studied science articles. We also talked to a manager at Stauffer's Foods, a water treatment specialist from Los Angeles, California, and a plumber who has experience installing chemical pumps. We spoke with three produce managers at grocery stores in our area about our idea, and even performed an experiment to decide which cleaner to use and make sure it wouldn't adversely affect the produce.

Our innovative idea includes a pump that is installed in-line with produce sprayers at the wet-rack of grocery stores. The pump forces a tested solution into the purified water which safely kills surface bacteria, like listeria, off produce. Our team has studied several different sources to find just the right solution. We have also performed an experiment to help us find one that will clean without damaging the produce. In our experiment, we found that produce sprayed with the solution actually lasted longer than produce that was sprayed with purified water alone! Besides being effective, it is also completely safe to use. When we spoke with grocery store managers to present our idea, two of three managers were interesting in installing the pump and solution. Lego Bistro is currently working toward FDA approval to use this solution in grocery stores.